Friday, August 06, 2010

Mammoth Correction (August 10th, 2010) - You know why "Eclipse" sounded so much better live than on the record? Because it wasn't "Eclipse"! It was the great song "Black Sheep" from the upcoming and less derision-inducing looking Scott Pilgrim film, thereby making all of my oh-so-witty slams about Twilight completely irrelevant. They didn't even play that damn song. Goes to show what I know when I listen to things one or two times in this mp3-of-the-moment world. And for further ass-kicking, I'm not even entirely confident that they didn't play "Black Sheep" as the kick off at the Terminal 5 show. And what really hurts is that I went back and listened to "Eclipse" after the concert to see if that really is what I heard because I had only heard the song once before. I totally forgot about the OTHER NEW SONG that I had only listened to once but actually liked. But "actually liked" still only counts for one or two listenings in this don't-have-time-to-actually-love-music-gotta-blog-about-it-fast-though 21st century life (see "mp3-of-the-moment" lament above). So the original opening paragraph of the review is modified below. Apologies to the band, apologies to "Black Sheep", and thanks to the Brooklyn Vegan commenters who pointed out a clear bone headed mistake.

Amended review follows:

Metric played pretty much the exact same set (shaved a song or two) in the exact same way as they did at Terminal 5 a few months ago but with I think two big differences.The first was they kicked off with "Black Sheep" - the imposing single from the upcoming film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - NOT the song "Eclipse (All Yours)" - their single from the Twilight soundtrack, which is nevertheless still some big deal with a lot of people (and despite my original error, I still wouldn't know, because I refuse to watch anything in which vampires sparkle in the sun instead of burn - why should my lack of ability as a hack writer get in the way of protecting sound vampire logic?).

"Black Sheep" of course makes sense as a kick off because it fits right into the Metric mold. The other big - and for sure - difference was the band sounded better as a whole in the open air of Prospect Park than they did at the acoustic horror of Terminal 5. Same band, same performance, better venue = the awesome thunder of Metric in full display. And I thought they actually sounded fine at Terminal 5 which goes to show how bad Terminal 5 really is.

I was still reeling from Shaw's solo in "Gold Guns Girls" from the last time and now he's done it again, and now I don't know if I'll recover for the rest of the year.

Emily Haines was having almost too good a time. During the acoustic "Combat Baby" finale, she got distracted by people posturing and being silly in the crowd. But this is her way. The band may have a tight, ultra professional big time production value but they are still people just having fun playing some music. A few weeks ago she used this thing called The Twitter (another big deal I don't quite get), and wrote how it was 2 in the morning and she was sitting across from two big time rock star guys having a conversation and it was one of THOSE oh-my-god-we've-made-it moments. No ego. None. Someone tell that to the two guys having the conversation.

While the open air worked in Metric's favor, it actually backfired against the opening acts. Joan Wasser's shows have been reviewed here before and they've been great. Tonight not so much. A little too meandering for the confines. And she's tired of "To Be Loved"? Really? Holly Miranda played one perfect beautiful soul song (Otis cover?) and a whole bunch of serious alt pop that got lost in the crowd. Both acts would have sounded better in a small club.